Blue Bird (album)

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Blue bird
Studio album by Charles Mingus

Publication
(s)

1971

Label (s) America Records, Prestige Records , Universal Music Jazz France, Sunnyside Records

Format (s)

LP, 2CD

Genre (s)

jazz

running time

1:59:05 (CD)

occupation

production

Pierre Berjot

Studio (s)

Decca Studios, Paris

chronology
The Great Concert, Paris 1964
(1970) 		Blue bird Charles Mingus with Orchestra
(1971)
Template: Info box music album / maintenance / parameter error
Charles Mingus 1976

Blue Bird and Pithycantropus Erectus are the titles of two jazz albums that Charles Mingus recorded as part of his comeback European tour on October 31, 1970 in the studio for the French record company Musidisc. The LPs were first released on the Musidisc sub-label America and as a double LP Reincarnation of a Lovebird on Prestige . After the albums Pithycantropus Erectus and Blue Bird were long out of print, they appeared in 2006 on Universal Music Jazz France with all other studio recordings in the 2-CD edition Charles Mingus in Paris - The Complete America Session .

background

Before his comeback tour, Mingus performed in the New York jazz club Slug’s in late March 1970 ; In the summer of 1970, the Mingus band finally consisted of Eddie Preston (trumpet), Charles McPherson (alto saxophone), Bobby Jones (tenor saxophone), Jaki Byard (piano), Charles Mingus (bass) and Dannie Richmond (drums). After engagements at Village Vanguard and The Village Gate in the summer of 1970, the Mingus Sextet went on a European tour in autumn. Three days after his Paris concert at the Théâtre national de Chaillot on October 28, Mingus was given the opportunity to make studio recordings for the Musidisc label. The interpretations of six tracks that emerged during the session appeared in France on the two albums Pithycantropus Erectus and Blue Bird , in the USA on Prestige Records as a double LP under the title Reincarnation of a Lovebird .

During his Paris session, Mingus concentrated on extensive elaborations of early compositions such as "Reincarnation of a Lovebird" (by The Clown , 1957), "Pithecanthropus Erectus" (from the album of the same name from 1956) and " Peggy's Blue Skylight " (1958), as well the 18-minute song "Blue Bird" by Charlie Parker .

The European tour of the Mingus sextet was then continued with performances in Rotterdam and at the Berlin Jazz Days . In early 1971 he received an advance payment of $ 10,000 from Musidisc.

Track list

LP Pithycantropus Erectus

  • Charles Mingus: Pithycantropus Erectus (America 30 AM-6109, Musidisc - MU 434)
  1. Pithecanthropus Erectus - 16:41
  2. Peggy's Blue Skylight - 12:51
  3. Love Is a Dangerous Necessity - 4:34

LP Blue Bird

  • Charles Mingus: Blue Bird (America 30 AF-6110)
  1. Reincarnation of Lovebird (Mingus) - 13:00
  2. I Left My Heart in San Francisco (Douglas Cross, Georges Cory) - 4:10
  3. Blue Bird (Charlie Parker) - 5:00 p.m.

CD Charles Mingus in Paris - The Complete America Session

  • Charles Mingus in Paris, October 1970 - The Complete America Session (Universal Music Jazz France - 984 275-6, Sunnyside - SSC 3065)
CD 1
  1. I Left My Heart In San Francisco 4:04
  2. Reincarnation Of A Lovebird 3:09 PM
  3. Peggy's Blue Skylight 12:51
  4. Love Is a Dangerous Necessity 4:34
  5. Blue Bird 18:08
  6. Pithecanthropus Erectus 16:41
CD 2 ( The Alternate Takes )
  1. Reincarnation of a Lovebird (Warm Up And First False Start) 0:30
  2. Reincarnation of a Lovebird (Second False Start) 1:49
  3. Reincarnation of a Lovebird (Third False Start) 0:06
  4. Reincarnation of a Lovebird (Incomplete) 4:49
  5. Peggy's Blue Skylight (First False Start) 0:15
  6. Peggy's Blue Skylight (Second False Start) 0:15
  7. Peggy's Blue Skylight (Third False Start And Rehearsal) 0:37
  8. Peggy's Blue Skylight (Alternate - Fast Version) 9:45
  9. Blue Bird (Incomplete) 4:10
  10. Reprise 0:42
  11. Love Is a Dangerous Necessity (First False Start) 1:06
  12. Love Is a Dangerous Necessity (Second False Start) 1:48
  13. Pithecanthropus Erectus (First Take, Incomplete) 7:33
  14. Pithecanthropus Erectus (reprise) 0:54
  15. Pithecanthropus Erectus (Rehearsal) 0:35
  16. Pithecanthropus Erectus (False Start) 0:09
  17. Pithecanthropus Erectus (To The End) 10:02
  18. Pithecanthropus Erectus (Mingus Explanations, Restart) 2:17

reception

Ken Dryden wrote in Allmusic that Charles Mingus shone with the revisions of his older compositions "Reincarnation of a Lovebird", "Pithecanthropus Erectus" and "Peggy's Blue Skylight"; even the bluesy version of Charlie Parker's “Blue Bird” never loses its steam. The quality of the shorter titles is different; while “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” was very successful, Mingus' new composition “Love Is a Dangerous Necessity” was disappointing (you can hear him shouting in the middle of McPherson's solo: “ Cut it, cut it! ”, whereupon the recording ends abruptly). Dryden also praises the additional material in the session, which documents the development of the recordings with false starts, abortions, incomplete takes and the test recordings. The extraordinary recordings showed that after overcoming his depression and financial problems, Mingus was on the rise and had much to contribute until amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ended his career at the end of this decade. In a second review that Scott Yanow wrote about the prestige double LP, he praised the album as excellent. Mingus is in top form and brings his fellow musicians to original statements.

Andrey Henkin found in All About Jazz that the longer pieces in particular are the more interesting, but the shorter ones reveal Mingus' concerns about convincing composing.

The Mingus biographers Horst Weber and Gerd Filtgen preferred the second album to the America session Blue Bird ; it is "much more compact and closed" than Pithycantropus Erectus . Jaki Byard was in the best of shape during the recording; his solo in "Reincarnation of a Lovebird" is remarkable. The thoroughly arranged “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” was an “absolute hit,” praised the authors; "The mood that was sustained here throughout the piece is unique in its density and cohesion". The extended “Blue Bird” has the “atmosphere of an after hours session ”. The theme of “Pithecanthropus Erectus”, the title track of the first America album, is “played more smoothly and more rapidly by the group than in the original version. The subsequent collective improvisation touches on the realms of free jazz without overwhelming the listener. ”In“ Peggy's Blue Skylight ”, McPherson plays more gently and cautiously, while Bobby Jones is more robust. "Love Is a Dangerous Necessity" is a very romantically performed ballad; "It contains a lot of mood in the arrangement and empathy in the solos of Eddie Preston and Charles McPherson".

The European tour in 1970

The tour of the Mingus band in autumn 1970 was documented on a series of live LPs and CDs, which, with the exception of the concert at TNP, are not authorized:

  • Teatro Lirico, Milan, October 25, 1970: Statements (Joker UPS2072KR)
  • Théâtre national de Chaillot, Paris, October 28, 1970: European Tour, Fall 1970 , Paris, TNP , Charles Mingus in Paris 1970 ( DIW Records )
  • Newport in Europe Festival, Rotterdam, November 1st, 1970: Live in Rotterdam, 1970
  • Berlin Jazz Days, Philharmonie Berlin, November 5th: In Berlin

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Blue Bird at Allmusic (English)
  2. ↑ http://www.discogs.com/Charles-Mingus-Charles-Mingus-In-Paris-The-Complete-America-Session/master/780071
  3. ↑ Bill Hardman (trumpet), Charles McPherson, Jimmy Vass (alto saxophone) and Dannie Richmond (drums) played in his band at that time . See Tom Lord Jazz Discography (online)
  4. ↑ See Brian Priestley : Mingus. A Critical Biography. Quartet Books, London, Melbourne, New York City 1982, pp. 179 ff.
  5. ↑ a b Review of Ken Dryden's Tonight at Noon album at Allmusic . Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  6. ↑ In Rotterdam u. a. also played the composition The Man Who Never Sleeps .
  7. ^ Gene Santor Myself When I am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus Oxford, New York 2000, p. 290
  8. ↑ Information about the album at Discogs
  9. ^ Review of the album in All About Jazz
  10. ^ Horst Weber, Gerd Filtgen: Charles Mingus. His life, his music, his records. Gauting-Buchendorf: Oreos, undated, ISBN 3-923657-05-6 , p. 156 ff.
  11. ↑ cf. http://mingusmingusmingus.com/mingus/unauthorized-recordings